Friday of 19th Week, Year II: reflection
Reading: Mt 19:3–12
In the light of the seemingly endless cases violence in marriages, breakups divorce and other marital issues that have become almost normal in the society, all married people are invited to take their minds back to the origin of marriage in order to discover the original intention of the one who instituted it as a union between a man and a woman.
When a question about marriage was posed to Jesus in today’s gospel, He didn’t answer it according to the custom of his land or to the law of the state, rather, he drew the attention of the questioners to how the union was when it was instituted by God and how it should be according to the will of God.
Jesus is, therefore, addressing to married people and those intending to enter the marital state to remind them that marriage was instituted by God as a union of love between a man and a woman, and should only be governed by love, which is both the intention and the identity of the one who instituted it. Marriage should not be governed by the dictates of the law but by love, since it is a sacred union and a vocation, it is not a mere secular union. Anytime people in a marital union relationship start evaluating their actions according to what their culture or the secular state says, that union has lost its test and needs rebooting.
It is true that the difficulties and challenges of living together as husband and wife are enormous, but when couples allow love to lead, their imperfections will not lead to physical and emotional attacks, breakups and divorce, but will instead challenge them to help each other to become better. When love leads, cases of betrayal will vanish, forgiveness will easily be given, tolerance, kindness, and other virtues acts will not be asked for, they will rather flow like a stream.
Most times, marital problems stem from the expectation of perfection from partners. But then, the fact that God created us imperfect should help people in marital unions to understand that no human can be perfect, and that whoever expects perfection from imperfect beings would be perfectly disappointed.
Let us, therefore, ask God to heal broken marriage and bless all marriages with abundant love
Fr Isaac C. Chima